Luciano Pavarotti - Biography - IMDb Luciano Pavarotti Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (2) | Trivia (17) Overview (4) The King of the High C's Big P 5' 10¾" (1.8 m) Mini Bio (1) Luciano Pavarotti was the best-selling classical singer and humanitarian known for his most original and popular performances with the 'Three Tenors' and 'Pavarotti & Friends'. He was born on October 12, 1935, in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy. He was the first child and only son of two children in the family of a baker. His father, Fernando Pavarotti, was a gifted amateur tenor, who instilled a love for music and singing in young Luciano. His mother, Adele Venturi, worked at the local cigar factory. Young Pavarotti showed many talents. He first sang with his father in the Corale Rossi, a male choir in Modena, and won the first prize in an international choir competition in Wales, UK.

He also played soccer as a goalkeeper for his town's junior team. In 1954, at the age of 19, Pavarotti decided to make a career as a professional opera singer. He took serious study with professional tenor Arrio Pola, who discovered that Pavarotti had perfect pitch, and offered to teach him for free. After six years of studies, he had only a few performances in small towns without pay. At that time Pavarotti supported himself working as a part-time school teacher and later an insurance salesman. In 1961 he married his girlfriend, singer Adua Veroni, and the couple had three daughters. Pavarotti made his operatic debut on April 29, 1961, as Rodolfo in La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini , at the opera house in Reggio Emilia. In the following years he relied on the professional advise from tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano , who prevented Pavarotti from appearances when his voice was not ready yet.

Eventually Pavarotti stepped in for Di Stefano in 1963, at the Royal Opera House in London as 'Rodolfo' in La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini , making his international debut. That same year he met soprano Joan Sutherland and the two began one of the most legendary partnerships in vocal history; Pavarotti made his American debut opposite Sutherland in February of 1965, in Miami Opera. Pavarotti was blessed with a voice of a rare range, beauty and clarity, which was best during the 60s, 70s and 80s. In 1966 he became the first opera tenor to hit all nine "high C's" with his full voice in the aria 'Quel destin' in 'La Fille du Regiment' (aka.. The Daughter of the Regiment) by Gaetano Donizetti . He repeated this feat in his legendary 1972 Met performance and was nicknamed "King of the High C's" in rave reviews. Pavarotti's popularity was arguably bigger than that of any other living tenor in the world.

His 1993 live performance in the New York's Central Park was attended by 500,000 fans while millions watched it on television. During the 1990s and 2000s Pavarotti was still showing his ability to deliver his clear ringing tone in the higher register, albeit in fewer performances. Luciano Pavarotti was known for his humanitarian work. He was the founder and the host of the 'Pavarotti & Friends' annual charity concerts and related activities in Modena, Italy. There he sang with international stars of all styles to raise funds for several worthy UN causes. Pavarotti sang with Bono and U2 in the 1995 song Miss Sarajevo and raised $1,500,000 in his charity project 'Concert for Bosnia'. He also established and financed the Pavarotti Music Center in Bosnia, and raised funds in charity concerts for refugees from Afghanistan and for refugees from Kosovo.

Pavarotti made two Guinness World Records: one was for receiving the most curtain calls at 165; and the other was for the best selling classical album of 'The Three Tenors in Concert' with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras . In March 2004 Pavarotti gave his last performance in an opera as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's 'Tosca' at the New York Metropolitan Opera. In 2005 Luciano Pavarotti started a 40 city farewell tour. He sang his signature aria 'Nessun Dorma' from 'Turandot' by Giacomo Puccini, at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy, on February 10, 2006. Pavarotti survived an emergency surgery for pancreatic cancer. His remaining appearances for 2006 have been canceled. However, his management anticipated that his farewell tour would resume in 2007. Luciano Pavarotti died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at home in Modena, Italy, where he was surrounded by his family.

He was laid to rest with his parents in the family tomb in Montale Rangone cemetery near Modena. His funeral ceremony in Modena was an international event attended by celebrities and over fifty thousand music lovers from all over the world. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Spouse (2) ( 30 September 1961 - 2000) (divorced) (3 children) Trade Mark (2) Large frame and ever present beard Trivia (17) Received Special Achievement Award for raising $8.2 million for the war children of Bosnia. [October 1997] Married his assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani in 2003, who bore him twins (a boy and a girl) in January 2003. Unfortunately due to complications at the time of birth only one child survived, daughter Alice. He also has three grown-up children with his first wife Adua. In December 2004 announced a 40 city farewell tour.

On February 10 2006, Pavarotti sang his signature aria "Nessun Dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Turin, Italy. He was a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. Married his longtime partner Nicoletta in a song-filled ceremony held in the main theater of the tenor's hometown, northern Italy. On March 9, 2005, he was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York to repair two vertebrae in his neck. He was discharged two days later after the routine operation. As of his 70th birthday, October 12, 2005, he was the most famous living operatic tenor. Son of Fernando Pavarotti . Became a teacher and then an insurance salesman. The latter job allowed him to take voice lessons. Had an ordinary childhood with an interest in soccer. 5 Great Italian opera singers - Eurochannel 5 Great Italian opera singers 5 Great Italian opera singers Since its conception in Italy in the 16th century, opera has left audiences delighted.

Starting with its earliest composition, Dafne by Jacopo Peri, this music genre has intended to represent dramas and romances in performances. Truly great operas require both great acting interpretation as well as intense vocal quality via voice interpretations. Many names have become legends and have even changed the course of the genre, taking it from the elite to the masses, exclusive auditoriums to public parks. Here, we offer up a selection of five of the greatest Italian opera singers of all time. Farinelli Considered as one of the greatest opera singers to have ever lived, Carlo Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, best known as Farinelli, was an Italian opera singer whose legacy has endured through five centuries and counting. Born into an artistic environment, his father was a composer and maestro di cappella of the city's cathedral. Throughout his adolescence, his singing prowess progressed rapidly and at the age of fifteen he made his debut. Farinelly was part of a group of castrated singers –the castrati- who were able to perform female roles. Francesca Cuzzoni Francesca Cuzzoni was a renowned Italian operatic soprano of the Baroque era.

Born in Parma to a violin player, she began to take singing classes at a very early age. Appointed chamber soloist to Violante Beatrice, Grand Princess of Tuscany, she performed in Florence, Siena, Genoa, Mantua, and Reggio nell'Emilia in operas by Orlandini and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, and in Vivaldi's Scanderbeg. Francesca Cuzzoni sung across Italy and a host of other European cities including London and Amsterdam. Luciano Pavarotti Arguably the most famous opera singer of the past century, Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena. Pavarotti became widely famous after teaming with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras in The Three Tenors, a trio regarded as having given and facilitated the spread of opera music to the popular masses. After abandoning his dream of becoming a football goalkeeper, Pavarotti made the life-changing decision to go into vocal training. He was influenced by both the natural affinity he felt for opera and the fact that his father was a keen amateur singer.

Pavarotti's earliest musical influences were his father's recordings, most of them featuring the popular tenors of the day such as Enrico Caruso.Pavarotti began his professional career as a tenor in smaller regional Italian opera houses but then went to perform in Yugoslavia, Ireland and the US. He’s also famous for his performances alongside rock and pop stars such as Bon Jovi, Queen, Celine Dion, Brian Adams, the Spice Girls amongst many others. Enrico Caruso One of the most important tenors in Italy’s recent history, Enrico Caruso is an icon in the opera world. He made approximately 290 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920, many of which are still available today. Making history, Caruso holds the honor of recording the first release to sell a million copies with his recording of “Vesti la giubba” from Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci in 1904.

Caruso also appeared in commercial films and played in important opera venues such as La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, he was also the leading tenor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 18 consecutive seasons. Cecilia Bartoli Five times Grammy-winner, Cecilia Bartoli is one of the most acclaimed Italian opera signers of modern times. Considered a mezzo-soprano, Bartoli was born in a house of singers as both parents were professional in the field. In contrast to most opera singers, Bartoli came to prominence in her early twenties, unusual in a profession where vocal maturity is typically not achieved until the thirties. She made her professional opera début in 1987 at the Arena di Verona.Her epic performance of the character Rosina from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, won her great acclaim.

She is famous for her performances of roles created by Mozart, such as Dorabella from Così fan tutte, Idamantes from Idomeneo, Zerlina and Donna Elvira from Don Giovanni, and Cherubino from Le nozze di Figaro. In 2007, she received much critical acclaim for her album Maria based on the enigmatic singer Maria Malibran, which was also a commercial success, topping the U.S Classical Billboard Charts. Obituary: Luciano Pavarotti | Music | The Guardian Luciano Pavarotti Share on Messenger Close The Italian tenor in full cry is what we mean when we say opera, which remains, in that sense, a man's world. The names of Caruso, Gigli and Pavarotti are code for operatic achievement, while the legendary divas whom they partnered only register with opera fans. Modern recording technology ensures that the spell-binding, heroic expressiveness of great tenors can work its magic anywhere. Historic voices are for all time. Since the mechanisation of memory, we need no longer rely on the pallid words of critics or historians.

Luciano Pavarotti, who has died aged 71, grew up in the 1940s listening to the previous golden generation of tenor stars on record and radio. So the presence of the past underpinned his own recorded achievement as a singer. His family were enthusiastically musical, and aged four he was apparently singing the Duke of Mantua's La Donna È Mobile from Rigoletto as a party trick, standing on the kitchen table. He modelled himself on what he heard, and used recordings to take account of the competition, dead or alive, throughout his career. Nature equipped him with one of the most individual, unmistakable and beautiful voices there has been. In his 50s, thanks to records and the increasing refinement of public address systems in the enormous, sometimes open-air venues where he performed, he became probably the richest opera singer in the history of music. But his thriving career, in fact, coincided with the steady decline of Italian opera. The Pavarotti phenomenon was a triumph of marketing. His name was given to a men's perfume.

His first wife, Adua Veroni (with whom he had three daughters, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana in the 1960s), launched Stage Door Opera Management in 1987, which became a leading Italian agency - though she confessed to "never being very fond of opera". Pavarotti made his debut at the Teatro Municipale, Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy, on April 29 1961, in the part of Rodolfo in La Bohème, conducted by Francesco Molinari Pradelli. He became a superstar 11 years later, on February 17 1972, when he sang Tonio in Donizetti's delightful La Fille du Régiment at the New York Met. "I had to sing nine high Cs in a row before I won the public's attention," he said later. After this triumph, Herbert Breslin took over his public relations and turned him into a television celebrity. A huge white handkerchief became his characteristic recital prop. Pavarotti and his warm, knowing grin were soon familiar at every level of society.

He was on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazines, and there were Pavarotti masterclasses on US television. He launched the Pavarotti Philadelphia international voice competition. His ease and potential on television was first demonstrated in 1963 to an audience of 15 million on ITV's Sunday Night at the London Palladium, when he stood in for Giuseppe di Stefano as Rodolfo at Covent Garden. It was a role he frequently returned to at the Royal Opera House. The operatic tenor is very much a 19th- and 20th-century phenomenon. The taste for Verdi and verismo that Pavarotti's remarkable gift helped sustain may not last for ever. Until Bellini and Donizetti came along (some of whose bel canto tenor roles helped to reinforce Pavarotti's early fame), the opera world was dominated by castrati. These were adult males singing soprano in such heroic roles as Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, whose parents had (usually) collaborated with the Catholic church in their castration. Even in the age of Verdi, however, there were no hysterical Italian fans rioting about tenors.

But by the late 20th century, the phenomenon of the three tenors, Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras, helped opera compete a trifle longer with football as a vehicle of Italian social mobility. Seldom in the history of opera would three such stars of the same voice have been seen dead together on stage, even for an impresario's gala. Carreras's illness clinched the gimmick. Each of the three earned so much money for a third less effort that the temptation was irresistible. If serious money can still be made singing songs a century old, perhaps opera cannot be written off yet - though Puccini, the last universally popular opera composer, died in 1926. Pavarotti's voice will cast a shadow for years to come on new aspirants. Yet on stage he took no role composed later than 1926. That was not his fault. The flood of Italian music had faltered and stopped. A few of the classless Italian and Neapolitan gems that served him as encores - such as Volare and Un Amore Così Grande - were postwar.

But those thousands who filled his pockets and flocked to rain-sodden fields and unlovely arenas to hear him would not have been interested in songs from postwar operas - had there been any popular Italian operas from the 1950s onwards, which there were not. His lavish and beautifully lyrical tenor needed appealing melodies. Has any tenor ever used the text with more immaculate musical expressiveness? Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti and Puccini showed him off at his eloquent (and, as he aged, increasingly robust) best. He sang a little Richard Strauss - the Italian tenor in Der Rosenkavalier was perfect typecasting. He was sublime as both son and father in Mozart's Idomeneo, at different stages of his career. He learned a few extra parts until he turned 60 (Verdi's Don Carlo, Giordano's Andrea Chenier). But his repertoire was for the most part a manageable range of roles that he had sung throughout his career. Not for Pavarotti, therefore, the adventures of Domingo, who could study Tchaikovsky and Wagner minutely and turn out not quite idiomatic Russian and German.

Pavarotti stuck to the tradition represented by earlier giants such as Caruso, Martinelli, Bjoerling, Bergonzi and Corelli - who, in turn, had stuck mainly to Italian repertoire. He could apply his extraordinary ear, and polish, and adjust his detailed approach so that the result was newly minted and fresh as a musical experience. He was an inspired perfectionist when it came to the fundamentals: the ideal moulding of poetry to a heavenly line of music. But he never distorted the true colour and purity of the vowels that he was singing. His words were always limpidly clear, expressively registered and dramatic. Fans of Domingo would suggest that their man could act, whereas Pavarotti only sang. But Pavarotti acted, not by demonstrating or showing off the characteristics of the part, but by defining its inward emotional essence in how he uttered the music and text. In keeping with operatic tradition, he was never fluent at reading music. According to the Daily Telegraph's Rome correspondent in 1997, Pavarotti relied "on his ear and his own rudimentary form of annotation to learn a musical work". In the Corriere della Sera, he admitted he was not a musician.

"I don't go in too deep. The musical score is one thing and the singing part is another. If you have the music in your head, and you sing it with your body, you'll be all right." He learned his songs by becoming familiar with the words, which he would print in a notebook alongside signs showing the melody rising or falling. So much for the old operatic debate about whether words or music come first. Pavarotti could make the music and words adhere to each other completely naturally. Both were in a sense laid on to his huge frame in a way that made their delivery second nature. This wonderful quality of acting out the meaning through the words was fundamental to his genius as a performer. The natural beauty of the sound he commanded was, in the end, more significant than the fact that he could sing top notes far more effortlessly than the hard-working and supremely competent Domingo (who could never sing as high comfortably anyway). Pavarotti was born in Modena, in northern Italy. His father, Fernando, was a baker with a vast record collection who sang tenor in his spare time in the Corale Rossini, a local chorus. His mother worked in a tobacco factory. The boy was often minded by his grandmother.

It was a close family; much later, Pavarotti cancelled performances at Covent Garden because of his father's illness. In fact, both his parents lived on into the 21st century. The young Luciano joined the Corale Rossini and sang alongside his father in his mid-teens. In 1955, aged 19, he was with them at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, where they won top prize. He trained to become a PE teacher, but when he qualified, the family took a vote on allowing him to study singing, and agreed to his wish, no doubt partly because it matched his father's own dream. He took lessons in Modena from a tenor, Arrigo Pola, before moving on to Ettore Campogalliani in Mantua, an experienced repetiteur and voice coach who understood fully the way in which Italian tenor singing ideally handles the passagio - the part of the voice above top G. The consistently elegant, expressively refulgent way that Pavarotti sang through the passagio was the secret of the remarkable longevity of his voice as an instrument. But the truth is he was a natural.

Of course, such an impeccable technique could not be acquired through lessons. The beautiful and natural sound that Pavarotti started out with simply needed to be polished and strengthened. In 1961, still only 25, Pavarotti won the Achille Peri competition, and married Adua Veroni after an engagement of eight years. The reward for the win was to make his debut in Reggio Emilia. Over the following 30 months, he sang at provincial opera houses in Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland. He was Rodolfo, the Duke in Rigoletto, Alfredo in La Traviata, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. In Dublin, he was spotted by a Covent Garden talent scout and engaged as understudy to di Stefano for the role of Rodolfo. In fact, Pavarotti did the whole run of performances - except for one sung by di Stefano.

His Royal Opera House debut, on September 21 1963, was heard by the Guardian's Philip Hope-Wallace: "He seemed modest, sang with musicianly feeling and uses a pretty clear, lyrical voice to some effect." His Scala Milan debut (in the same role, conducted by Herbert von Karajan) was still two years away. Then the pace of his career quickened. He sang Edgardo in Lucia in Amsterdam, and in July 1964, he was Idamante at Glyndebourne (opposite Richard Lewis's Idomeneo for 12 performances), later declaring: "What I learned there was to sing piano" - from Jani Strasser, the legendary head of music, who taught him the role. At 28, Pavarotti's style was impeccable, the ease and beauty with which the text was realised were irresistible, the perfection of support and focus at the top were model. Listening today to the recording of that August's prom performance (it is still available on CD), the contrast with Richard Lewis's muddy Anglo-Italian demonstrates exactly what was going to make Pavarotti a world beater.

The conductor John Pritchard recorded Idomeneo again 19 years later in Vienna, with Pavarotti in the title role. In February 1965 he made his US debut in Miami, as Edgardo to Joan Sutherland's Lucia, conducted by her husband Richard Bonynge, a team with whom he would make a large number of important recordings. He returned to Covent Garden with Sutherland for La Sonnambula (as Elvino), and toured Australia with the Sutherland-Williamson company in L'Elisir d'Amore (Nemorino became a signature role for him), Traviata, Lucia and Sonnambula. In 1966 Abbado conducted him in I Capuleti e i Montecchi at La Scala. He had performed the Duke in Rigoletto with Tullio Serafin at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo during the earliest stages of his career, and now he repeated the role with Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Later, in 1969, at La Scala, he also sang Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon (in Italian).

But what mattered most in 1966 was his legendary appearance in June with Sutherland at Covent Garden in La Fille du Régiment. The point was that he sang the high Cs in full voice, though Donizetti had expected them to be sung in head voice. Full voice means without any adjustment towards falsetto, the sound when the soft palette is pressed down. Head voice would have meant not going into the passagio and sustaining that sort of modified shout, which is the way tenors make their top notes exciting. But Pavarotti had a relaxed natural vibrato right through: his singing was all of a piece. This ability was a sort of piratical feat, and Decca (Pavarotti's recording company) used the title King of the High Cs on a record he made. The success of this achievement for a time helpfully focused his work on the bel canto repertoire in which Bonynge and Sutherland were contemporary pioneers, with roles such as Arturo in Bellini's I Puritani and Fernando in Donizetti's La Favorita.

Considering the length of his career, and the flair with which he recognised work that was right for his gifts, the fact that Pavarotti stayed with a particular corner of the repertoire at such an important developmental stage may well have strengthened further his technique. A period devoted to lighter, more lyrical roles was the foundation for a carefully calculated expansion of his repertoire. Roles he later undertook included Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Ernani, Rodolfo in Luisa Miller, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Calaf in Turandot (which gave him his world cup aria, Nessun Dorma), Idomeneo and Enzo in La Gioconda. After the success of his high Cs at the Met and the engagement of Breslin, he started to extend the number and scale of recitals, starting with one in Liberty, Missouri, in February 1973. Pavarotti performed in so many provincial centres that his recognisability and fame registered everywhere. Sales of his records were enormous, even if recitals reduced his availability for work in important opera houses.

The range of roles he sang regularly or frequently on stage was much more limited than his recorded legacy suggests. Recitals and, eventually, epic amplified solo performances were a major factor in his working career. Pavarotti was not thin - though he was a handsome, if usually unaristocratic, figure on stage. By the early 1970s, he was significantly overweight. But his father, too, cut a bulky shape. Reporters interviewing Pavarotti often referred to this. When asked his weight, he would reply: "Less than before." And when challenged what exactly that was, would respond: "More than now." He wrote his autobiography, My Own Story (1981), and took part in a movie, Yes, Giorgio (1982). After 1983, with Breslin's encouragement, he teamed up with Tibor Rudas, the promoter of Frank Sinatra and Neil Diamond concerts. He sang to 7,500 people in a heated tent in Atlantic City. The fee for similar occasions would be $100,000 and a percentage of ticket sales.

In 1984, he sang to 20,000 at Madison Square Garden, New York. During the 1980s, he sang only half as many opera performances each year as Domingo, and Domingo's repertoire of roles was twice as large. But Pavarotti made enormous amounts of money, in part by turning himself into a painter, which had long been a hobby. A print of one of his paintings fetched $2,500, though he was sued by the author of a how-to-draw book who claimed he had copied her examples. Ventures that were not artistic successes included directing opera (a Favorita at La Fenice in Venice, after which he explained: "It was not much fun. I was too nervous"), and singing the title role in Otello in Chicago with Georg Solti conducting. The performances and public rehearsals, in Chicago and later Carnegie Hall, were recorded and edited onto a CD. But the result was unimpressive. His Radames, in Aida at Covent Garden in the 1980s, was also unconvincing, with his enormous frame covered up in a tent-like frock.

His first marriage came to an end when, in his 60s, he took up with his former personal assistant Nicoletta Mantovani, a woman 35 years his junior. Their wedding, in 2003, was celebrated by a banquet for 600 guests, including Sting, Bono and Donatella Versace. They had a daughter, Alice. He began to cancel performances that looked as if they should have been final appearances, and announced that he would retire on his 70th birthday in 2005. His schedule of 40 mainly concert performances in 2003 was rumoured to earn him $35m. He did a total of 34 Three Tenors concerts around the world between 1990 and 2003. But his health began to interfere with his plans, and after starting a farewell world tour in 2005 he discovered he had pancreatic cancer. An operation was declared successful, and Pavarotti announced he would return to the stage this year. He had been working on a recording of sacred songs to be released next year.

His last performance of a staged opera was at the Met on March 14 2004. In February 2006, he opened the winter olympics in Turin, singing Nessun Dorma transposed to a more suitable pitch for a tenor of his years. Pavarotti's astounding international celebrity made it difficult to stop. According to Decca, he was the most popular artist in the history of the classical recording industry, perhaps even more famous than Caruso, and probably the last great lyric tenor in a noble line. When he was born, Mascagni and Giordano were still alive and writing: they have had no Italian operatic heirs. Pavarotti possessed a voice of pure gold that matured in strength and depth without losing its innate ravishing beauty, precision and expressiveness.

· Luciano Pavarotti, tenor, born October 12 1935; died September 6 2007 Luciano Pavarotti | Italian opera singer | Britannica.com Italian opera singer José Carreras Luciano Pavarotti, (born October 12, 1935, Modena , Italy —died September 6, 2007, Modena), Italian operatic lyric tenor who was considered one of the finest bel canto opera singers of the 20th century. Even in the highest register, his voice was noted for its purity of tone, and his concerts, recordings, and television appearances—which provided him ample opportunity to display his ebullient personality—gained him a wide popular following. Luciano Pavarotti, 2004. Petros Giannakouris/AP Pavarotti graduated from a teaching institute in Modena (1955) and then taught elementary school for two years. He studied opera privately, mostly in Mantua.

After winning the Concorso Internazionale, a singing competition, he made his professional operatic debut in 1961 as Rodolfo in La Bohème (1896) in Reggio nell’Emilia , Italy. He then played in opera houses throughout Europe and Australia and performed the role of Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo (1781) at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1964. He made his first appearance in the United States in Miami in 1965, singing opposite Joan Sutherland as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor (1835). In 1968 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City , and from 1971 he was a regular performer there. Pavarotti toured the world, performing to as many as 500,000 fans at a time in outdoor venues , as a solo performer or as one of the “ Three Tenors ” (with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras ). Among his many prizes and awards were five Grammy Awards and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001.

Luciano Pavarotti singing the role of Edgardo in Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di … Beatriz Schiller—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images His most notable operatic roles included the Duke in Giuseppe Verdi ’s Rigoletto (1851), Tonio in Gaetano Donizetti ’s La Fille du régiment (1840; a part remarkable for its demanding sequence of high Cs), Arturo in Vincenzo Bellini ’s I puritani (1835), and Radamès in Verdi’s Aida (1871), all of which are available as sound recordings. He performed in a number of televised opera broadcasts. In addition to his opera work, Pavarotti also recorded a collection of Italian love songs (Amore [1992; “Love”]) and a pop album (Ti adoro [2003; “I Adore You”]). Luciano Pavarotti, 1993. © Thierry Orban/Corbis Sygma With William Wright he wrote Pavarotti: My Own Story (1981) and Pavarotti: My World (1995).

In 2004 Pavarotti gave his final performance on the operatic stage, although he continued to sing publicly until 2006. His last public appearance was in the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin , Italy, where he sang his signature aria , “ Nessun dorma, Luciano Pavarotti Biography - life, family, childhood, parents, story, school, mother, information, born, time, year Luciano Pavarotti Biography Modena, Italy Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti is possibly the most operatic tenor (the highest male singing voice) since Enrico Caruso (1873–1921). He is noted for combining accuracy of pitch and quality of sound production with a natural musicality. His early years Luciano Pavarotti was born on the outskirts of Modena in north-central Italy on October 12, 1935. He speaks fondly of his childhood, but the family had little money. Pavarotti, his parents, and his sister were crowded into a two-room apartment. His father was a baker, and his mother worked in a cigar factory.

In 1943, because of World War II (1939–45; when France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union fought against Germany, Japan, and Italy) the family had to leave the city. For the following year they rented a single room from a farmer in the neighboring countryside. Pavarotti's earliest musical influences were his father's recordings featuring the popular tenors of the day. At around the age of nine he began singing with his father in a small local church choir. He took a few voice lessons at the time, but he has said they were not significant. After a normal childhood with an interest in sports, especially soccer, he graduated from the Schola Magistrale and faced the dilemma of choosing a career. Pavarotti was interested in pursuing a career as a professional soccer player, but his mother convinced him to train as a teacher. He taught in an elementary school for two years, but his interest in music finally won out. Recognizing the risk involved, his father reluctantly gave his consent. He agreed that Pavarotti would be given free room and board until age thirty.

After that time, if he had not succeeded as a singer, he would earn a living by any means that he could. The beginning of his career Pavarotti began serious study in 1954 at the age of nineteen with Arrigo Pola, a respected teacher and professional tenor in Modena. Pola knew of the family's money problems and offered to teach Pavarotti for free. At about this time Pavarotti met Adua Veroni, whom he married in 1961. When Pola moved to Japan two and a half years later, Pavarotti became a student of Ettore Campogalliani, who was also teaching the now well-known soprano (the highest female singing voice), Pavarotti's childhood friend Mirella Freni (1935–). During his years of study Pavarotti held part-time jobs in Luciano Pavarotti. AP/Wide World Photos . order to help sustain himself—first as an elementary school teacher and then, when he failed at that, as an insurance salesman. The first six years of study resulted in nothing more significant than a few recitals, all in small towns, and all without pay.

When a nodule (a small lump) developed on Pavarotti's vocal chords causing a "disastrous" concert in Ferrara, Italy, he decided to give up singing. After this episode, Pavarotti's voice almost immediately improved. He feels this was due to a psychological release connected with this decision. Whatever the reason, the nodule not only disappeared but, as he related in his autobiography, "Everything I had learned came together with my natural voice to make the sound I had been struggling so hard to achieve." Becomes a success Pavarotti won the Achille Peri Competition in 1961, for which the first prize was the role of Rodolfo in a production of Puccini's La Bohème to be given in Reggio Emilia on April 28 of that year. Although his debut was a success, a certain amount of maneuvering was necessary to secure his next few contracts. A well-known agent, Alesandro Ziliani, had been in the audience and, after hearing Pavarotti, offered to represent him.

When La Bohème was to be produced in Lucca, Italy, Ziliani told the management that they could only have the services of a well-known singer they wanted if they took Pavarotti in a package deal. Pavarotti's concert at Covent Garden, London, England, in the fall of 1963 also resulted from an indirect invitation. Giuseppe di Stefano had been scheduled for a series of performances, but the management was aware that he frequently canceled on short notice. They needed someone whose quality matched the rest of the production, yet who would learn the role without any assurance that he would get to sing it. Pavarotti agreed. When di Stefano canceled after one and a half performances, Pavarotti stepped in for the remainder of the series with great success. Pavarotti's debut in 1965 at La Scala, in Milan, Italy, again as Rodolfo, came at the suggestion of Herbert von Karajan, who had been conducting La Bohème there for two years and had, as Pavarotti said, "run out of tenors." Pavarotti was somewhat resentful that the invitation did not come directly from the La Scala management.

Also in 1965 Pavarotti made his American debut in Miami, Florida, as Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Illness troubled him during his New York City debut at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1968 and compelled him to cancel after the second act of the second performance. Nineteenth-century Italian opera comprises most of Pavarotti's repertoire (group of songs that one can sing), particularly Puccini, Verdi, and Donizetti, whose music he found the most comfortable to sing. He sings few recitals, because he regards them as more strenuous than opera. Expands his career Very few opera singers are convincing actors and Pavarotti is not among them. However, by the mid-1980s he spent nearly as much time on practicing his acting as on his singing. In 1972 he starred in a commercial film, Yes, Giorgio. His solo album of Neapolitan songs, "O Sole Mio," outsold any other record by a classical singer. Throughout the 1980s Pavarotti strengthened his status as one of the opera world's leading figures.

Televised performances of Pavarotti in many of his greatest and favorite roles helped him broaden his appeal. He was able to reach millions of viewers each time one of his opera performances or solo concerts was seen. He also began to show increasing flexibility as a recording artist. He recorded classical operas and Italian folk songs. He also recorded contemporary popular songs with composer and conductor Henry Mancini (1924–1994). He became the world's third-highest top-selling musician, right behind Madonna (1958–) and Elton John (1947–). By the time Pavarotti proposed and staged the first "Three Tenors" concert in Rome, he was unabashedly (boldly, without disguise) thrilled with his immense popularity. "I want to be famous everywhere," he told Newsweek. Pavarotti received his share of criticism and rejection as well. He was barred from contracts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1989 because he canceled many performances due to bad health. He was sued by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in 1992 for selling the network a lip-synched (pre-tending to sing to a pre-recorded track) concert.

He was booed at La Scala during a performance of Don Carlo. He finally canceled tours and took several months off to rest. Pavarotti returned to the stage in 1993 with a concert before five hundred thousand people in Central Park, in New York City. Critics accused him of blatant commercialism (overly concerned with making money), but the crowds loved the performances. In 1997 the three tenors—Placido Domingo (1941–), Jose Carreras (1947–) and Pavarotti—toured to mixed reviews, but delighted audiences who seemed unwilling to let Pavarotti even think of retiring. In 2000 prosecutors in Bologna, Italy, tried Pavarotti on tax fraud charges. They claimed that although Pavarotti lived in Monte Carlo he still had many property holdings in Italy. Pavarotti was accused of owing almost $5 million and could have spent as much as a year and a half in prison. In the end, he was acquitted (had charges dismissed). In 2002 Pavarotti continued to drop hints that he would be retiring soon, but had not given any specific date.

Through his talent and his desire to reach out to audiences everywhere, Pavarotti has been an important figure in bringing the world of opera to a great variety of people. For More Information Kesting, Jürgen. Luciano Pavarotti: The Myth of the Tenor. Edited by Susan H. Ray. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996. Lewis, Marcia. The Private Lives of the Three Tenors. New York: Carol Pub., 1996. Pavarotti, Adua. Pavarotti: Life with Luciano. New York: Rizzoli, 1992. Pavarotti, Luciano, with William Wright. Pavarotti: My Own Story. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981. User Contributions: Luciano Pavarotti Is Dead at 71 - The New York Times The New York Times Music |Luciano Pavarotti Is Dead at 71 Search Photo Luciano Pavarotti at the National Theater in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 2002.

Credit Andres Leighton/Associated Press Luciano Pavarotti , the Italian singer whose ringing, pristine sound set a standard for operatic tenors of the postwar era, died Thursday at his home near Modena, in northern Italy. He was 71. His death was announced by his manager, Terri Robson. The cause was pancreatic cancer. In July 2006 he underwent surgery for the cancer in New York, and he had made no public appearances since then. He was hospitalized again this summer and released on Aug. 25. Like Enrico Caruso and Jenny Lind before him, Mr. Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera. He became a titan of pop culture. Millions saw him on television and found in his expansive personality, childlike charm and generous figure a link to an art form with which many had only a glancing familiarity. Early in his career and into the 1970s he devoted himself with single-mindedness to his serious opera and recital career, quickly establishing his rich sound as the great male operatic voice of his generation — the “King of the High Cs,” as his popular nickname had it.

Continue reading the main story By the 1980s he expanded his franchise exponentially with the Three Tenors projects, in which he shared the stage with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, first in concerts associated with the World Cup and later in world tours. Most critics agreed that it was Mr. Pavarotti’s charisma that made the collaboration such a success. The Three Tenors phenomenon only broadened his already huge audience and sold millions of recordings and videos. Advertisement Continue reading the main story And in the early 1990s he began staging Pavarotti and Friends charity concerts, performing with rock stars like Elton John, Sting and Bono and making recordings from the shows. Throughout these years, despite his busy and vocally demanding schedule, his voice remained in unusually good condition well into middle age. Even so, as his stadium concerts and pop collaborations brought him fame well beyond what contemporary opera stars have come to expect, Mr. Pavarotti seemed increasingly willing to accept pedestrian musical standards. By the 1980s he found it difficult to learn new opera roles or even new song repertory for his recitals.

And although he planned to spend his final years performing in a grand worldwide farewell tour, he completed only about half the tour, which began in 2004. Physical ailments limited his movement on stage and regularly forced him to cancel performances. By 1995, when he was at the Metropolitan Opera singing one of his favorite roles, Tonio in Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” high notes sometimes failed him, and there were controversies over downward transpositions of a notoriously dangerous and high-flying part. Yet his wholly natural stage manner and his wonderful way with the Italian language were completely intact. Mr. Pavarotti remained a darling of Met audiences until his retirement from that company’s roster in 2004, an occasion celebrated with a string of “Tosca” performances. At the last of them, on March 13, 2004, he received a 15-minute standing ovation and 10 curtain calls. All told, he sang 379 performances at the Met, of which 357 were in fully staged opera productions. In the late 1960s and ’70s, when Mr.

Pavarotti was at his best, he possessed a sound remarkable for its ability to penetrate large spaces easily. Yet he was able to encase that powerful sound in elegant, brilliant colors. His recordings of the Donizetti repertory are still models of natural grace and pristine sound. The clear Italian diction and his understanding of the emotional power of words in music were exemplary. Mr. Pavarotti was perhaps the mirror opposite of his great rival among tenors, Mr. Domingo. Five years Mr. Domingo’s senior, Mr. Pavarotti had the natural range of a tenor, exposing him to the stress and wear that ruin so many tenors’ careers before they have barely started. Mr. Pavarotti’s confidence and naturalness in the face of these dangers made his longevity all the more noteworthy. Photo Luciano Pavarotti during dress rehearsal for "L'Elisir d'Amore," at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1998. Credit Suzanne Plunkett/The Associated Press Mr. Domingo, on the other hand, began his musical life as a baritone and later manufactured a tenor range above it through hard work and scrupulous intelligence. Mr.

Pavarotti, although he could find the heart of a character, was not an intellectual presence. His ability to read music in the true sense of the word was in question. Mr. Domingo, in contrast, is an excellent pianist with an analytical mind and the ability to learn and retain scores by quiet reading. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Yet in the late 1980s, when both Mr. Pavarotti and Mr. Domingo were pursuing superstardom, it was Mr. Pavarotti who showed the dominant gift for soliciting adoration from large numbers of people. He joked on talk shows, rode horses on parade and played, improbably, a sex symbol in the movie “Yes, Giorgio.” In a series of concerts, some held in stadiums, Mr. Pavarotti entertained tens of thousands and earned six-figure fees. Presenters, who were able to tie a Pavarotti appearance to a subscription package of less glamorous concerts, found him valuable. The most enduring symbol of Mr. Pavarotti’s Midas touch, as a concert attraction and a recording artist, was the popular and profitable Three Tenors act created with Mr. Domingo and Mr. Carreras.

Some praised these concerts and recordings as popularizers of opera for mass audiences. But most classical music critics dismissed them as unworthy of the performers’ talents. Ailments and Accusations Mr. Pavarotti had his uncomfortable moments in recent years. His proclivity for gaining weight became a topic of public discussion. He was caught lip-synching a recorded aria at a concert in Modena, his hometown. He was booed off the stage at La Scala during 1992 appearance. No one characterized his lapses as sinister; they were attributed, rather, to a happy-go-lucky style, a large ego and a certain carelessness. His frequent withdrawals from prominent events at opera houses like the Met and Covent Garden in London, often from productions created with him in mind, caused administrative consternation in many places. A series of cancellations at Lyric Opera of Chicago — 26 out of 41 scheduled dates — moved Lyric’s general director in 1989, Ardis Krainik, to declare Mr. Pavarotti persona non grata at her company. A similar banishment nearly happened at the Met in 2002.

He was scheduled to sing two performances of “Tosca” — one a gala concert with prices as high as $1,875 a ticket, which led to reports that the performances may be a farewell. Mr. Pavarotti arrived in New York only a few days before the first, barely in time for the dress rehearsal. On the day of the first performance, though, he had developed a cold and withdrew. That was on a Wednesday. From then until the second scheduled performance, on Saturday, everyone, from the Met’s managers to casual opera fans, debated the probability of his appearing. The New York Post ran the headline “Fat Man Won’t Sing.” The demand to see the performance was so great, however, that the Met set up 3,000 seats for a closed-circuit broadcast on the Lincoln Center Plaza. Still, at the last minute, Mr. Pavarotti stayed in bed. Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Italy, on Oct. 12, 1935. His father was a baker and an amateur tenor; his mother worked at a cigar factory.

As a child he listened to opera recordings, singing along with tenor stars of a previous era, like Beniamino Gigli and Tito Schipa. He professed an early weakness for the movies of Mario Lanza, whose image he would imitate before a mirror. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy As a teenager he followed studies that led to a teaching position; during these student days he met his future wife. He taught for two years before deciding to become a singer. His first teachers were Arrigo Pola and Ettore Campogalliani, and his first breakthrough came in 1961, when he won an international competition at the Teatro Reggio Emilia. He made his debut as Rodolfo in Puccini’s “Bohème” later that year. In 1963 Mr. Pavarotti’s international career began: first as Edgardo in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, and then in Vienna and Zurich.

His Covent Garden debut also came in 1963, when he substituted for and Giuseppe di Stefano in “La Bohème.” His reputation in Britain grew even more the next year, when he sang at the Glyndebourne Festival, taking the part of Idamante in Mozart’s “Idomeneo.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story A turning point in Mr. Pavarotti’s career was his association with the soprano Joan Sutherland. In 1965 he joined the Sutherland-Williamson company on an Australian tour during which he sang Edgardo to Ms. Sutherland’s Lucia. He credited Ms. Sutherland’s advice, encouragement and example as a major factor in the development of his technique. Further career milestones came in 1967, with Mr. Pavarotti’s first appearances at La Scala in Milan and his participation in a performance of the Verdi Requiem under Herbert von Karajan. He came to the Metropolitan Opera a year later, singing with Mirella Freni, a childhood friend, in “La Bohème.” A series of recordings with London Records had also begun, and these excursions through the Italian repertory remain some of Mr.

Pavarotti’s lasting contributions to his generation. The recordings included “L’Elisir d’Amore,” “La Favorita,” “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “La Fille du Régiment” by Donizetti; “Madama Butterfly,” “La Bohème,” “Tosca” and “Turandot” by Puccini; “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata” and the Requiem by Verdi; and scattered operas by Bellini, Rossini and Mascagni. There were also solo albums of arias and songs. Photo Luciano Pavarotti as Arturo Talbo and Joan Sutherland as Elvira in dress rehearsal for the Metropolitan Opera's production of "I Puritani" in 1976. Credit Associated Press In 1981 Mr. Pavarotti established a voice competition in Philadelphia and was active in its operation. Young, talented singers from around the world were auditioned in preliminary rounds before the final selections. High among the prizes for winners was an appearance in a staged opera in Philadelphia in which Mr. Pavarotti would also appear.

He also gave master classes, many of which were shown on public television in the United States. Mr. Pavarotti’s forays into teaching became stage appearances in themselves, having more to do with the teacher than the students. An Outsize Personality In his later years Mr. Pavarotti became as much an attraction as an opera singer. Hardly a week passed in the 1990s when his name did not surface in at least two gossip columns. He could be found unveiling postage stamps depicting old opera stars or singing in Red Square in Moscow. His outsize personality remained a strong drawing card, and even his lifelong battle with his circumference guaranteed headlines: a Pavarotti diet or a Pavarotti binge provided high-octane fuel for reporters. In 1997 Mr. Pavarotti joined Sting for the opening of the Pavarotti Music Center in war-torn Mostar, Bosnia, and Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney on a CD tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2005 he was granted Freedom of the City of London for his fund-raising concerts for the Red Cross.

He also was lauded by the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, and he holds two spots in the Guinness Book of World Records: one for the greatest number of curtain calls (165), the other, held jointly with Mr. Domingo and Mr. Carreras, for the best-selling classical album of all time, the first Three Tenors album (“Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti: The Three Tenors in Concert”). But for all that, he knew where his true appeal was centered. “I’m not a politician, I’m a musician,” he told the BBC Music Magazine in an April 1998 article about his efforts for Bosnia. “I care about giving people a place where they can go to enjoy themselves and to begin to live again. To the man you have to give the spirit, and when you give him the spirit, you have done everything.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Pavarotti’s health became an issue in the late 1990s. His mobility onstage was sometimes severely limited because of leg problems, and at a 1997 “Turandot” performance at the Met, extras onstage surrounded him and helped him up and down steps.

In January 1998, at a Met gala with two other singers, Mr. Pavarotti became lost in a trio from “Luisa Miller” despite having the music in front of him. He complained of dizziness and withdrew. Rumors flew alleging on one side a serious health problem and, on the other, a smoke screen for his unpreparedness. The latter was not a new accusation during the 1990s. In a 1997 review for The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini accused Mr. Pavarotti of “shamelessly coasting” through a recital, using music instead of his memory, and still losing his place. Words were always a problem, and he cheerfully admitted to using cue cards as reminders. A Box-Office Powerhouse It was a tribute to Mr. Pavarotti’s box-office power that when, in 1997, he announced he could not or would not learn his part for a new “Forza del Destino” at the Met, the house substituted “Un Ballo in Maschera,” a piece he was ready to sing. Around that time Mr.

Pavarotti left his wife of more than three decades, Adua, to live with his 26-year-old assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani, and filing for divorce, which was finalized in October 2002. He married Ms. Mantovani in 2003. She survives him, as do three daughters from his marriage to the former Adua Veroni: Lorenza, Christina and Giuliana; and a daughter with Ms. Mantovani, Alice. Mr. Pavarotti had a home in Manhattan but also maintained ties to his hometown, living when time permitted in a villa in Santa Maria del Mugnano, outside Modena. He published two autobiographies, both written with William Wright: “Pavarotti: My Own Story” in 1981 and “Pavarotti: My World” in 1995. In interviews Mr. Pavarotti could turn on a disarming charm, and if he invariably dismissed concerns about his pop projects, technical problems and even his health, he made a strong case for what his fame could do for opera itself.

“I remember when I began singing, in 1961,” he told Opera News in 1998, “one person said, ‘run quick, because opera is going to have at maximum 10 years of life.’ At the time it was really going down. But then, I was lucky enough to make the first ‘Live From the Met’ telecast. And the day after, people stopped me on the street. So I realized the importance of bringing opera to the masses. I think there were people who didn’t know what opera was before. And they say ‘Bohème,’ and of course ‘Bohème’ is so good.’ ” About his own drawing power, his analysis was simple and on the mark. “I think an important quality that I have is that if you turn on the radio and hear somebody sing, you know it’s me.” he said.

“You don’t confuse my voice with another voice.” A Day Trip to Modena – Bologna Uncovered A Day Trip to Modena Modena city view with its majestic Palazzo Ducale Located on the south side of the Po Valley in the Emilia-Romagna region, Modena is a small and ancient town synonymous with balsamic vinegar, Lambrusco wine and cars. It is here that the iconic Ferrari has its headquarters (more precisely in Maranello) and one of Ferrari’s car, the 360 Modena, was named after the town that gave birth to the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari. Modena is also home to the second oldest university in Italy, founded in 1175. The great late opera tenor singer Luciano Pavarotti was born here and Italian military officers train at the Italian Military Academy, partly housed in the baroque Ducal Palace.

Piazza Grande with the Duomo and tower of Ghirlandina A half hour from Bologna, Modena is perfect for a day visit thanks to a compact city center where, within a few steps, you can find Piazza Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Cathedral and the tower of Ghirlandina, symbol of the city. Your day trip in Modena should start right from Piazza Grande, the heart of the city and of Modena’s community life for centuries. Despite its name, which means “big square”, Piazza Grande is not actually big when compared to the main squares of other Italian towns. Two elements worth noting are the “pietra ringadora” and the Statue “della Bonissima”: the former is a huge block of pink marble, on the square since the 13th century, used in the past as a stage to charge up the crowds, to announce sentences and to expose unidentified corpses; the latter, according to legend, represents a Modenese noblewoman popular for her kindness (bonissima means “very good” in Italian).

A closer view of Modena’s masterpieces: Duomo and Ghirlandina Overlooking the square is the Duomo, a masterpiece of Romanesque art and Modena’s most important artistic monument. It was built at the end of the 11th century by architect Lanfranco, whose style largely influenced European Romanesque art afterwards. “How did I do it? I was inspired directly by God,” Lanfranco is quoted saying when asked about the realization of his majestic project. Entirely covered in white marble, its façade and monumental door is decorated by the beautiful sculptures of Wiligelmo, depicting both sacred and profane subjects, from the Genesis stories to daily life representations. Head inside to admire its solemn and evocative look. Next to the Duomo is the looming Ghirlandina tower, whose construction began at the same time as the Duomo and ended two centuries later. It was built using marbles coming from the ruins of the ancient Roman city, when Modena was called Mutina. The Ghirlandina takes its name from the banisters that resemble elaborate wreaths, in Italian ghirlande.

Also framing Piazza Grande is the Palazzo Comunale, made up of a series of buildings dating back to different ages, from the 11th to the 15th century. Go inside to admire the frescos. All the buildings on Piazza Grande have been the center of Modena’s political and religious life for centuries. Ferrari’s headquarters are in Modena where the owner’s company, Enzo Ferrari, was born. It is now time for lunch. Head south of the square toward Corso Canal Chiaro, covered by medieval arcades. A five-minute walk will take you to the 3-star Michelin restaurant Osteria Francescana on Via Stella. Owned by chef Massimo Bottura, it was recently nominated the “third best” restaurant in the world. “Slow Food in fast times is our way of life,” it says on the restaurant’s website. With only 12 tables, reservations are recommended. You can walk off your lunch taking a stroll along Via dei Servi and Corso Canal Grande, where several palaces from different periods adorn these curvy and arcaded streets that were once canals.

Along Corso Canal Grande is the historic Teatro Comunale, now Teatro Comunale “Luciano Pavarotti”, dedicated to the singer after his death in 2007. Modena’s porticoes and colorful building facades Walk until you reach Piazza Roma, seat of the majestic Palazzo Ducale. Its construction began in 1289 when it was intended to become a castle, but in 1630 it was renovated by Francesco I D’Este to become the Duke’s residence after Modena had become the capital of the powerful Este duchy in 1598, which reigned over Modena, Ferrara and Reggio Emilia. Today, part of the building is occupied by the most prestigious military institution in Italy, the Accademia Militare (visit only upon request). You can visit the rest of the palace with its courtyards and galleries, a monumental staircase with eight statues, some of which come from Villa d’Este in Tivoli, and several rooms, including the Salone D’Onore, with its frescoed ceilings.

Balsamic vinegar sample taking Head back toward Piazza Grande and take Via Emilia, Modena’s most important artery cutting through town from east to west with several prestigious public and private buildings. Keep walking past Piazza Matteotti until you reach the Palazzo dei Musei. Built during the second half of the 17th century, it served different functions, from military repository to hospice for the homeless and the orphans, until it was acquired by the city of Modena after Italy’s unification and began housing art collections from the Este dynasty. Today it houses several different museums, hence the name, including the Estense Library, the Estense Gallery, the Estense Museum, the Art Museum and the Archaeological Museum. Don’t forget to leave Modena without buying a bottle of one of its most popular gastronomic delicacy: traditional balsamic vinegar. In Modena, you can even find a gelato flavor inspired to it!

Ten Photos to Inspire a Visit to Modena | ITALY Magazine Ten Photos to Inspire a Visit to Modena Silvia Donati | Thursday, April 21, 2016 - 18:50 Located on the south side of the Po Valley in the Emilia-Romagna region, Modena is a small and ancient town synonymous with balsamic vinegar, Lambrusco wine and cars. It is here that the iconic Ferrari has its headquarters (more precisely in Maranello) and one of Ferrari’s cars, the 360 Modena, was named after the town that gave birth to the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari. Modena is also home to the second oldest university in Italy, founded in 1175. The great late opera tenor singer Luciano Pavarotti was born here and Italian military officers train at the Italian Military Academy, partly housed in the baroque Ducal Palace. Modena is perfect for a day visit thanks to a compact city center where, within a few steps, you can find Piazza Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Cathedral and the tower of the Ghirlandina, symbol of the city.

Question: Late opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was born in which Italian city?
Answer: Modena